A significant development with our US distibutor, PorchLight has been the development of a new kids’ broadband channel in the US called KidMango, scheduled for launch at MIPCOM October 2007. FARMkids is the fresh new animation feature on the site, which will have other high profile TV content such as Snoopy and Smurfs, movies like Shrek and Star Wars and strategic partners such as Kraft, Leap Frog and Pizza Hut.

It also has an interactive channel called KidVideos which is a supervised version of a kids' 'YouTube', and is expected to generate significant traffic. PorchLight’s objective is to have the KidMango site within the top 10 online broadband content distributors within 2 years, which would generate site visits (based on today’s figures) of around 3 million unique visitors per month. FARMkids will be involved in broadcasting episodes and music clips and we have developed 1 minute teaser clips of the first 13 episodes to entice kids to view full episodes. We also have made 4 music clips and other suitable content material for kidmango.com.

Pursuing a call for the arts and his lifelong fascination with animation, Sorin abandoned a career in marine engineering to study at Queensland College of Arts where he graduated with Honours in Animation.

With over ten years industry experience in 3D animation, Sorin draws on a wide range of technical and creative expertise, including writing, storyboarding, character design, modelling, animation and special effects. His credits include various TVC’s, short films like ‘Winging It’, and his own ‘Deep Frenzy’, pilots and TV series such as ‘Dreamtime’ (ABC), ‘The Shapies’ (Channel 9), ‘Duck Dodgers’ (Warner Bros.), games and miniseries for Disney’s ‘Pooh Bear’ and ‘Mickey and Minnie’ and others.

Sorin has been lecturing and tutoring at the Queensland College of Art in art theory as well as various technical subjects with regards to 2D and 3D animation production and has been invited as a speaker at the international conference held by the Society for Animation Studies in Brisbane in 1999.

For Sorin, the FARMkids concept presented a refreshing change, really inspiring and full of potential right from the beginning when he fell in love with it’s quirky and fun characters.

His directorial role is all about bringing to life these exciting characters and telling an engaging, fun story. To do this he is working closely with very talented teams on every step of the process starting with the writers for scripts, voice actors, the FARMkids Creative Team for all preproduction materials, music, sound effects and finishing with the animation teams from the overseas animation production studios in India and China.

Passionate about animation, Sorin thrives on a challenge and is consistently pushing his work to deliver the best possible product. His eye for detail and persistent push for quality were instrumental in shaping the look and feel of the show and quality that now stands out proudly as one of the best 3D animated TV shows for kids today.

At the end of this long production process, his greatest reward is the kids reactions to the characters and stories in each episode.

An avid animation consumer of animation in all forms and mediums, mainstream or independent, Sorin enjoys watching shows like Sponge Bob Square Pants, Fairly Odd Parents and Futurama with his kids and being blown away by every movie that tells a great story like the ones from Pixar, DreamWorks, Ghibli to name a few.